TEHRAN – Rescue and relief operations are underway in Sisakht and surrounding areas as a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck the southwestern town late on Wednesday.

The quake felt in several cities and villages in the region, struck at a depth of 10 km at 10:05 p.m. local time.

According to officials, some 2,000 houses in Sisakht and 38 neighboring villages have been damaged by the incident and around 60 people have been injured. No fatalities have been reported so far.

Iran has entered a decade of earthquakes since the [Iranian calendar] year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018), as the Iranian plateau is shrinking by 30 millimeters per year, Mehdi Zare, professor of engineering seismology at the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), has said.

An earthquake of magnitude 6 or more is likely to occur in Iran next year, he stated.

Zare went on to say that every year about 250 earthquakes of 4 to 4.9 magnitude, 25 earthquakes of 5 to 5.9 magnitude, two magnitudes 6 to 6.9 earthquakes happen in the country, adding, every 10 years two earthquakes of 7 to 7.9 magnitude occur.

About 2 percent of the earthquakes of the world occur in Iran but more than 6 percent of the victims of the world earthquakes during the 20th century are reported from Iranian earthquakes. This shows the high level of vulnerability in Iran, according to Zare.